


Insecurity

by SoWrongButSoWrite (CinnaStarks)



Series: Inquisitor Izuna [17]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Drabble, Emotional Baggage, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 20:22:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4033309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinnaStarks/pseuds/SoWrongButSoWrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite Cassandra's assurances, Cullen still worries about his status in the eyes of their "Herald of Andraste."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Insecurity

For as long as Cassandra has known him, Cullen has not been one to open up about his frustrations. Though, after ten years of dealing with a past trauma she only learns about in small doses, it makes sense that he would have found his own method of coping.  A withdrawal headache, severe enough to keep him inside of the dim chantry, has thrown a knife in whatever that method is. With nothing to keep his mind off of it, he paces across the war room. 

“Do you honestly think that she would be willing to lead an Inquisition whose forces are lead by a-”

“For the third time, Commander.” Cassandra presses her palms against Orlais, desperately trying to reign in a bitterness brought on by exhaustion. “Yes.” 

“How can you be so sure of that?” He opens his mouth to continue but stops suddenly, his face contorting into expression of pain. One of his gloved hands tugs at already mussed curls.

“She respects me.”

“Not the same.” Cullen forces through gritted teeth. “Meredith Stannard was not a Seeker of Truth, she was a  _Templar_.” The hand tugging at his scalp slams itself upon the table. “The stories I’ve been told about Dalish mages begin kidnapped and dragged to the nearest Circle-” 

“-were exactly that.”

“The Dalish have no reason to believe otherwise.”

Just when Cassandra believes her patience has reached its thinnest point, a literal glimmer of hope flashes between the double doors; the Anchor. There is a knock. Two knocks.

“Come in.” She says, ignoring the weary look that Cullen sends her. 

The Herald of Andraste slides in. Her gaze finds Cassandra and then Cullen, but it stays long enough for him to almost cower beneath it. Strange, seeing how there seems to be no malice behind the look, only concern. 

“Did I-”

“No.” This time, Cassandra matches the glare Cullen sends her. “There is, however, something that both of us are curious about-” He is shaking his head. “-with regards to the Chantry.”

She folds her arms across her chest and, with a small sigh, leans against the closed doors. “Alright.”

“As you may know, Commander Cullen was once a Templar.”

“I do know that, yes.”

“Do you trust him to lead the Inquisition’s forces?”

“Yes.” There is no hesitation. “No point in dwelling upon the past when our future is in jeopardy.”

The look in Cullen’s eyes is one of dissatisfaction. She tries again. 

“Knowing his involvement with the Chantry and Kirkwall’s rebellion, do you still respect him?”

Not a second can pass before the answer is given.

“Yes.” Her tone mirrors Cassandra’s in firmness, but it is not directed at her. Spindly, overworked fingers move to touch his. “There isn’t anything he has said or done to me that has convinced me that I shouldn’t.”  They fall as fast as they rose.

Red stains the white of Cullen’s face, and yet his muscles seem to relax. His glare softens.

He breathes.

Cassandra cannot begin to question what she is seeing before the Herald clears her throat. "Also, Mother Giselle requests that you two find another place to argue ‘without disturbing the peace’.” 

The intensity in his eyes is gone and his lips form the closest thing Cassandra has seen to a smile from him in days. “I believe you have settled it, actually.” He says. “Thank you.”

A small smile and she is gone. 

“Better?”


End file.
